This Academic-Community Partnership Conference Series grant proposal describes how a major academic health center (University of Florida/Shands-Jacksonville) will partner with a key community organization (Duval County Health Department) to utilize principles of community based participatory research (CBPR) to address major health disparities. Our initial focus on health disparity reduction will be on the use of techniques of outreach and information dissemination that are most effective with minority adolescents and young adults related to obesity in those populations. This approach to building on CBPR capacity will be implemented over three years. Our specific aims are organized around two goals: 1) to use this conference cooperative agreement to create a CBPR infrastructure to support the use of principles of community engagement and involvement of community in the selection, design and implementation of research that addresses issues of concern to the community, 2) to use this conference cooperative agreement mechanism to educate and inform community partners on outreach and dissemination with adolescents and young adults, particularly related to obesity. The specific aims are to: 1) Create a Community Advisory Board that will collaborate with researchers on the full range of research activities from selection of the research initiative to interpretation and dissemination of the results; 2) Execute an MOU between the University of Florida/Shands Health Science Center-Jacksonville, Center for Health Equity and Quality Research and the Duval County Health Department as a pivotal community organization with experience and commitment for organizing and mobilizing a wide range of community partners to address major community problems; 3) Use the principles and practices of CBPR to identify the community's perceived areas of interest concerning major health disparities in the community; 4) Develop and implement an evaluation to assess the effectiveness of the CBPR; 5) Educate and inform community members on designing and implementing research on health disparities, with particular emphasis on building capacity for community participation and collaboration, and 6) Provide seminars, workshops and forums for the community to investigate and develop insights into the most effective mechanisms for the community to reach adolescents and young adults related to obesity, as an initial CBPR area of focus based on substantial community concern.